Award-winning tax expert credits parents' work ethic for inspiring her success

21-July-2022

Former barrister Sejal Sira, one of the star performers in the TaxAssist Accountants network, has won a major industry award.

Sejal, who owns and runs two TaxAssist franchises serving Watford, Barnet and Borehamwood with here husband, Kam, has won a Great British Franchisee Award from whichfranchise.com, the highest honour in the industry.

“My immigrant parents ran several successful businesses from newsagents to pubs and hotels,” says Sejal.

“I therefore knew the value of hard work, the importance of the customer experience and having a good team around you to support you.”

She launched her business at the height of the last recession in 2010, has a fifth-of-a-million-pound turnover, and aims to double that within five years.

The former barrister acquitted herself admirably during the pandemic as businesses all around her closed their doors.

“Like our clients, we were all anxious and worried about the future of our businesses,” she recalls. “The phones wouldn’t stop ringing for weeks.

“As a small business ourselves, we completely understood the panic being experienced by our clients.

“Then came the Government’s myriad support measures and packages and our clients looked to us to demystify the announcements and help them understand and access the support.

“We were able to do that quickly because of TaxAssist’s Support Centre updates, webinars and newsletters.

“As franchisees, we felt supported, in control and confident that we had the tools and the knowledge to advise our clients.”

Sejal’s response to the pandemic did not go unnoticed by TaxAssist’s head office, as well as by the judges of the awards.

“We bounce off the energy that Sejal brings to our franchise,” says James Mattam, Group Business Development Director of TaxAssist Accountants.

“While most of our network will do well by following our franchise model and applying hard work and dedication in their local area, Sejal has developed ways to engage with clients and her team on a personal level which helps them all join in on her journey with her.

“Her client acquisition skills have delivered strong sales growth within her practices and we’ve always worked closely with Sejal to show other franchisees in the network how they can follow suit.

“As any franchisor should, we constantly adapt and improve the model to keep it effective and efficient, and Sejal has contributed well to this.”